


The Explorer

by AkadaNao



Category: Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal Series - J.M. Lee, The Dark Crystal (1982), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Humor, Prequel, Scuba Diving, Survival, Wilderness Survival, humans on Thra what
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26453791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkadaNao/pseuds/AkadaNao
Summary: How did skekGra receive his vision of unity? What were the vile and cruel deeds for which he was framed? How much damage could one human person possibly do on Thra?Edin may have been an intrepid explorer and cave diver, but after discovering a glowing crystal that transported her to an alien world embroiled in its own brutal political dramas, she quickly learned that she was no diplomat. Whether it meant allying herself with a monstrous skeksis that called itself the Conqueror or deceiving the gentle if naive gelfling people, she would do whatever was necessary to escape the madness that was Thra.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

  


There are a few well-known, hard-learned rules to cave diving. Laying guidelines, reserved oxygen, and spare light sources are among the most critical. But Edin knew to add another to the list: keep your cool. 

Panicking underwater led to disorientation, poor judgement, and often, drowning. Fear, more so than equipment malfunction or poor training, was the most risky and unpredictable factor in a dive and therefore the one she spent the most time trying to control. To a certain point, the rest became routine. But just one panic attack could mean the difference between life and death. 

So, when a large rock crumbled off the cave wall, separating her from her dive partner and stirring up a dense cloud of sediment, the best reaction was no reaction at all. Edin held herself steady, one hand delicately grasping the wall, the other lightly holding the guideline and aiming her light into the swirling muck, reminding herself to keep her breaths even and her mind as quiet as possible. The passageway was too narrow to turn around, but she knew it would widen ahead. She had no choice now but to move forward. 

She checked the line with a gentle tug, but rather than resisting as expected, she felt it give freely from behind. Her guideline had snapped. Once again, she reminded herself to be calm. She waited, watching the sediment dance in a whirling, milky mass around her, remaining as still as possible to hasten its settle. When her light finally began to illuminate the limestone walls ahead, she tucked the now slack guideline under her thumb and used her fingertips to pull herself along, careful to keep her fins away from the silty ground. 

Visibility was still poor, and if she dropped the bright yellow line, it may become lost in the thick sediment. She moved slowly, calculating her supply of oxygen. They had been under about twenty minutes and had enough air for two and a half hours total. She still had some time to figure things out. Brian may already be working on a way to clear the passage behind her, so perhaps it was simply a matter of turning around. 

About twenty feet on, the passage opened like a balcony looking down into a larger cavern. This was as far as they got yesterday, eager to leave the unexplored depths for today. With a gentle push off the edge, she was suspended in the open cavern, at least forty feet down, perhaps ten across. She felt the temperature of the water drop noticeably around her. They had tied the guideline to a protruding stone on the opposite wall, intending to lay a new line here and continue on. Tracing her light along the walls she could see multiple darkened crevices whose mysterious channels all but cried out for further exploration. Despite her precarious situation, she couldn’t help but feel the thrill of laying eyes on a place never before seen. But then, out of the corner of her eye, something yellow floating downward. The guideline.

Helplessly, she shone the light on the string as it fluttered down. She must have inadvertently dragged it out of the tunnel. Her tether to the exit was now little more than a lure to blind cave dwellers. Stay calm. Think backwards. She had come through the tunnel opposite the tied end of the guideline, heading about 110 degrees, and most likely there would still be stirred sediment floating about. She shone her beam into one passageway, and then a second. Which one? She looked again, growing more uncertain. Keep calm. She checked her dive computer and reoriented her position. Still, two nearly identical passageways presented themselves. Perhaps if she switched off her light she would see Brian’s beam coming from the correct tunnel. She depressed the rubbery switch and was instantly enveloped in darkness. 

The black of an underwater cave was unlike any other. So complete, it was as if her eyes had simply been plucked out of her head. But the totality of it came not just from the lack of light, but the pressure, the density of the water; the heavy silence outside her measured, whooshing breath.

Lightly grasping a rocky outcropping to hold her body still, she peered toward the direction of the passageway, waiting for the faintest glow to reach her. Be calm. She rubbed the rough, braided nylon line between her thumb and finger, feeling it’s slack tail bobbing beneath her. Could she see something? She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and opened them again. Yes, the faintest glow was coming from her right, but a bit lower than anticipated. 

She pushed herself down and over toward the tunnel, threading the line through her fingers. If she ran out of line before reaching the light source, she’d know it was the wrong tunnel. Simple. She clicked on the flashlight again and examined the opening. It seemed narrower than the one she came through. Of course, this area was riddled with caverns. There could be more than one way back to the surface; maybe she was seeing daylight instead of Brian’s light. She reached around her back for the line reel to tie a second line at the opening of the tunnel, just to be safe. 

Her dive computer read five minutes since she began inching her way through the tunnel, so twenty minutes since the rock fall. About one hour of air left. Calm. But the light source was undeniable now, visible even through her own light. The passageway wasn’t narrowing; if anything, it was widening. Good news, but she could only allow a few more minutes of exploration before turning back. The chalky limestone walls here were dotted with another stone that glimmered with each pass of her light; quartz, maybe. Just a smattering at first, but more as she went on. She was now fairly certain this wasn’t the tunnel she came through, but curiosity pulled her forward. Just a bit further. 

As Edin came to a bend, she knew the lightsource was just ahead. The water had warmed and the walls shone brilliantly. It occurred to her that too much nitrogen in her tank could be causing some confusion, but she had checked the levels carefully, as always. Could she have slipped under a depth of 100 feet? A quick check read only fifty-two feet, so the pressure shouldn’t be an issue yet. Despite this, she felt that even if she had only moments of air left, she would still push forward. Beyond her usual persistence, she felt compelled, beckoned.

Pulling herself around the bend, she was met not with a sun-lit exit or by the light of a fellow diver, but a solid, glowing formation encased in dull limestone. Trapped, it seemed to push outward, vying for the same escape she herself sought. Inching closer, she could see it’s mineral, glassy quality, shot through with fine lines and divots, but otherwise a single, large stone with a slightly pinkish hue. It seemed to be its own source of luminescence and heat. It was beautiful. 

Reaching out toward the glowing stone, she didn’t notice the guideline, not yet at it’s broken end, fall from her loose grasp. As she placed her fingertips on the surface, she felt only for a moment it’s smoothness and warmth before suddenly falling forward. It was like unexpectedly missing a step on a stairway, but when she thrust her arms forward reflexively, they met only empty space. And it was dark again. Were her eyes open? Had her light failed? Stay calm. 

Although the fall lasted a fraction of a moment longer than it should have, it did end. She was no longer underwater, but lying face down on a hard surface. The tanks strapped to her sides were suddenly oppressively heavy, and in her forearms she felt a painful, latent tingle from the force of her fall. In shock, she took a sharp inward breath, forgetting her regulator and instantly beginning to choke. Panic. She wrenched out her mouthpiece, sputtering, and pulled the mask from her face, taking in deep, ragged breaths. Her head seized with pain and she clenched her eyes shut tightly, lying a cheek on the cool stone floor. But this was wrong. 

Her eyes flickered open. She was inside - where? A cavern? No, the smooth floor and walls of this space were designed by hand, not by nature. She raised herself onto her forearms, wincing. It was an unfamiliar space, large and dim with a high, vaulted ceiling. Certainly not the dense brush that surrounded the cave where she had just been. Looking over her shoulder, she could see the glowing stone. But it wasn’t the same; it was larger, darker, free from its rocky encasement. 

“Gahh!” The screech came from behind, beyond her restricted sightline. _“Toovarron?”_

Edin attempted to right herself, but the weight of the tanks kept her belly firmly on the ground. She strained her neck, searching for the voice. 

“Please, help me,” she managed with a hoarse cough. 

_“Hodisthee! Rakhaak!”_

“No, please…” The unfamiliar language gave her pause. “I need help.”

A shuffle, hurried footsteps, many voices, and then something she understood: “That thing! Grab it!” Hands were suddenly laid upon her, grabbing at her arms, pulling the helmet from her head. But what kind of hands were these? What kind of people? She peered up at a half dozen small faces, still unable to right herself. She allowed them to wrestle her onto her side, sit her upright. With her arms restrained, the little hands jerked her head backward, finding purchase in a clump of her wet braid.

It was all confusion before her. Layers of swishing fabric, bony arms flailing, piercing shrieks. What was she looking at? Huge birds? She couldn’t make sense of it. Perhaps there had been too much nitrogen in the mix after all. 

_“Karoovid?”_ One voice demanded. 

_“Keflinkssho!”_ Another offered.

 _“Rekhaak oo sta Daradee?”_ The creatures were speaking all at once, but it didn’t sound like Indonesian or any local dialect as she would have expected. If anything, it was like a chorus of frogs attempting to speak Arabic. How many were there, four? Five? She squinted her eyes, tried to focus. Her head was still held tight. 

_“Daradee um, skekSil tum._ Guards, make it to speak again!”

“Speak creature!” A voice shouted near her ear, jerking her forcefully to the side. 

“I’m sick, lost” Edin managed. “I need help.”

_“SkekSil yat.”_

“How did you get into the castle?” The guard's voice asked. 

“I- I’m a diver,” Edin swallowed, attempting to clear her throat. “I was diving near Kupang. I got lost, separated. I’m not sure how I got here, where I am …” She trailed off as the creatures continued shouting over one another, pointing to her, to the glowing stone. 

She was being held down by little people, it seemed, but in front of her, pushing ever closer, were monstrous beings. Sickly grayish-blue heads with beaked snouts and protruding teeth poked out of heaping piles of intricate, patchwork garments. They threw about knoby, taloned hands as they shouted, visibly alarmed and enraged. 

_“Soot!”_ A voice broke through the others, quieting them. “ _Soot._ I will have answers. Creature, who send? What purpose?”

Edin managed to turn her head slightly to see her inquisitor. A heavily robed vulture, like the others, though clearly in command. 

“N-no one sent me. I’m a scuba diver. My name is Edin Santos. I’m an American.” Surely that held some weight? They were silent now, so she continued. “I was exploring a cave, for fun, but-” 

“What cave? Where?” The commanding creature pressed. 

“Near the coast of West Timor … Nusa Tenggara … Indonesia?” How far from the cave could she possibly be? Still assuming, of course, that she was both high on nitrogen and suffering the onset of decompression sickness. How else to explain this? “It’s a bit remote, but we were told it was fine to dive there. I didn’t think I was trespassing …” 

She trailed off, sensing their confusion as they exchanged glances. 

“Did you pull me out of the cave? It’s just … I was underwater and then I was here, wherever this is. Did I run out of air?”

“Nonsense. _Koopta um Daradee.”_

“Lies!” 

_“Shara Kelflinks.”_

As further accusations came forward, the commander seemed to consider his options. 

“Take to Scientist, put in cage - if one large enough - or chain to floor. Make secure. SkekTek to assess crystal for aberrations, then assess creature.”

“My Lord,” the small guard said with a dip of his head. Then, looking to the others, “Take this thing to the Chamber of Life. Hold it tight.”

“No, no, stop-” Edin tried to protest as they jostled her about, searching for a handhold. The larger creatures began to depart, their great bulk swaying to and fro. “Oh, ouch, please. Let me just take off my tanks and fins, I can stand.” 

“Sir, we’ll need more men to move it. Or a cart.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Original illustration by Ben Jackson, created for this work. Property of author. https://bmjackson.uk/
> 
> 2\. The skeksis language used throughout is based on the novelization of the original Dark Crystal movie by A.C.H. Smith. According to Brian Froud, the skeksis language, "was restricted to nouns, adjectives and expletives."


	2. Chapter 2

“What’s this?” skekTek brightened upon realizing the guards were dragging in a new creature for study. "Is dead? Or live?"

“An intruder found in the Crystal Chamber, my Lord. It’s very much alive.” 

The Scientist surveyed the laboratory. Surely there was a free cage somewhere. 

“That turgon dead by now,” skek gestured toward a row of enclosures carved into the far wall. “Clear out and put this one in.” 

The beast they towed was tied around its extremities with rope, but its eyes darted wildly about. It looked like a huge, black gelfling with a pale-colored head. And flippers. Remarkable. Of skekTek’s many endeavors, studying the various life forms of Thra was among its favorite. Their corporal protoplasm held endless fascination, bountifully producing more and greater uses with each new subject. 

As the guards wrestled the creature into the cage, quickly untying it before scuttling away, skekTek peered in. The animal was in poor shape, barely able to lift itself. It was hung all over with tethers and devices with two metal cylinders attached to its sides. Very foreign in appearance. Not gelfling made, surely. 

“Do you speak?”

“I speak,” the creature said with a resigned sigh. 

“You gelfling?” 

“I don’t know what that means.”

It spoke the gelfling tongue and though large, it’s broad, flat face certainly suggested gelfling. 

“What manner of creature, then?”

The animal lifted its arms slowly and fumbled with the tethers lashed to it’s ventral surface. Once released, the cylinders hit the floor with a heavy clunk and it pushed itself upright; it would not be able to stand erect in the space provided, presuming it could stand at all, though perhaps it only swam. It possessed a bilaterally symmetrical body plan with two arms like the gelfling, but exceptionally long legs. It wore plaits in its hair, also like the gelfling, but with far smaller ears held nearly flush to the skull. Its coloring was more like that of the mud-dwelling Pod People, however. And curiously, five digits on each hand. With only one example, it was difficult to tell if the creature expressed sexual dimorphism or if - like skeksis - it was free from the bestial nature of gender. It narrowed a pair of small eyes and looked through the rough-hewn bars of the cage, assessing the Scientist carefully. 

“I’m an A-mer-i-can,” it pronounced the word with particular emphasis. “What are you?” 

Skek chuckled. Audacious! “What objects ameircan carry?”

“My dive gear. Do you normally hog tie your visitors before stuffing them in cages?”

“Only troublesome ones. You swim underwater, yes? Aquatic in nature? Or carry breathing apparatus?” Skek pointed to the cylinders and accompanying machinery. 

“Listen, something has happened to me. I don’t know what, but I think I’m hallucinating. One minute, I was in a cave, searching for a way out, and the next I was here. I didn’t have time to reacclimate to the pressure so maybe that’s a factor. But something is very wrong.” 

SkekTek crossed its arms. The american possessed intelligence, but lacked reasoning faculties. It spoke, but it’s words made little sense. The neural tissues would be of great interest, should skek be allowed to crack open the cranial casement. 

“Maybe it had something to do with the rock. The crystal. I touched it just before-”

“What of the crystal?” 

“The one I found. It looked a bit like the one you’ve got up there.” It gestured toward the ceiling. 

“American touch it and then find self here?”

“That’s the last thing I remember.” The american tapped on a smooth, black surface at it’s wrist, causing it to illuminate. “These readings don’t make much sense. It must have reset. I can’t tell how far I’ve come or how much time has elapsed.”

The Scientist frowned and turned toward the crystal’s chasm. Dormant for centuries, and now this? On the eve of the Lunar Concurrence, no less. Though certainly novel, it could not be a coincidence. 

Marching over to the entrapment device, skek pulled the restraint and retraction levers with practiced movements, lowering the crystal into the laboratory. The great stone appeared visually unaltered; the same heliotrope effulgence, the familiar interstice on it’s fifth polygonal facet. Switching the magnetometer to life, the dials shivered into somewhat elevated readings, though no more than expected. The thermoscope read as constant. No vibrational perturbation rang forth, at least none that could be heard over the chattering of the caged creatures scattered throughout the lab. If full power had been restored to the crystal, it was keeping its secrets now. 

In its enclosure, the american strained to watch. The Scientist felt suddenly enraged by the possibility of some shift occurring in the crystal outside skeks ability to measure, but somehow witnessed by this cretinous beast. 

“What does american know of crystal, tell me!” Skek strode to the cage and leaned close, nearly pressing its face to the latticed gate. The american jerked back, its eyes darting from the crystal to skekTek. 

“It was warm, when I touched it,” it stammered. “And it was glowing, kind of pink. I’ve never seen anything like it. And it was just buried underground! But now, I’m not even sure if it was real. I mean, what is all this?”

As it spoke, skekTek caught the scent of something striking, nearly masked by the noisome odor of the other animals. Inhaling more deeply, the faint yet distantly familiar smell lingered. Skek stepped back, lifted its head and sniffed again, to be sure. No, the smell came from the american. It was distinct, both acrid and carbonic, like a blacksmith at a banquet. 

With temper quelled, the Scientist smiled and leaned forward conspiratorially. “You smell of stars, american.”

The sinking, hollowed-out feeling Brian had when he watched the rock wall crumble had yet to dissipate. In an instant, he knew he lost her. The limestone in this region was like waterlogged chalk, ready to disintegrate at the slightest touch. The smallest movement could have caused the rock to slide free, but he couldn’t stop replaying the moment in his mind; the slowed tumble and bounce followed by an instant explosion of sediment. He had thrashed at the rock, but it was wedged tight. And then he began to count the moments until her last breath. It was every diver’s worst fear, yet a tragically common reality. Cave diving was a sport with a high body count. 

Edin was always the calm diver between them. It was as if their polarities reversed underground; her wide-eyed enthusiasm for cavalier challenges became all smooth composure once the gear came out. Brian was the tactician, planning their dives with cool-headed precision. But underwater, his heart always beat a little too fast. In the moments after the collapse, she had undoubtedly done all the right things, while he fumbled and panicked. At that moment he had to decide: should he turn back, try to find help despite knowing the nearest capable diver was hours away, or should he use his every last breath trying to clear the tunnel? 

It didn’t matter, in the end. Two hours came and went. Then a day, and then another. Eventually, they held a bedraggled service at the mouth of the cavern and placed a conspicuous marker next to a skull-and-crossbones sign reading, “Deadly. Do Not Enter.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since the skeksis are neither male nor female, I wanted to avoid using gendered pronouns when they refer to themselves. I've opted to use "skek" in place of him/her, he/she. The main character, on the other hand, uses "he/him".


	3. Chapter 3

Several hours had passed; enough time for the crackling ache of decompression sickness to begin crawling through Edin’s extremities, and nearly enough time for her to accept that while diving an unexplored cave, she had inadvertently found a portal to another world. Either that, or she had died and was now wading through some strange version of purgatory involving rude, inquisitive, and fantastically ugly creatures. Maybe this was punishment for her and Brian’s many years of living in sin, as her very Catholic grandmother had warned. If so, Edin failed to understand the Almighty’s sense of penance. Or was it humor? 

The Scientist, as they called him, had nearly exhausted her knowledge on subjects ranging from the inner workings of her vital organs to her understanding of astronomy, inevitably finding the information she had to offer insufficient. In turn, he answered absolutely none of her questions. She had to stage a protest of silence before he agreed to even give her water. She declined the food offered - something like black spaghetti that wriggled with life - only to watch him stuff the squirming tangle into his own gaping mouth. Reluctantly, she handed over her gear in hopes of earning some trust and favor, only to watch him methodically pull it apart without so much as a second glance in her direction. 

Although she suspected she should be terrified, she found the whole situation enthralling, even exciting. Maybe her passion for a deadly sport had desensitized her to a certain amount of danger. But cave diving was more than just sport for Edin. Growing up outside Miami, she learned to scuba dive young and gradually gained expertise. At first she just wanted to get away from the crowds, but as she went deeper, her aim became to go places no one had ever been. On Earth, a task only accomplished underwater. 

She made a career out of it; first working in dive shops and as an instructor, and eventually opening a tour company with Brian. They led technical dives in Florida and the Bahamas, but sought exciting challenges in new places every chance they got. She fancied herself something of a modern explorer; a Ponce de León meets Neil Armstrong. So, although she currently found herself locked in a cage, it was a cage in a place she imagined no one had seen before. 

If she strained, she could just see the Scientist’s humped back slumped over a worktable, his dinosaur head resting atop one of her tanks in gruesome slumber. She checked the secondary dive watch she retained on her wrist, surreptitiously tucked under her sleeve. Four hours had passed since she was put in the cage, but she had the pressing suspicion that the sooner she got out, the better. Not just foul-smelling and dank, this shop of horrors was bedecked in creatures flayed, dissected, discarded, preserved, and reanimated with an almost gleeful display of cruelty. She could feel the pleading gaze of a fuzzy, many-legged creature boring into her from an adjacent cage. 

Luckily, another key rule of cave diving was redundancy. Light packing was not a virtue when equipment failure could mean certain death, so multiples were always carried. Whatever gear the Scientist had failed to notice, she had also failed to mention. Thus, she was able to saw at the lashings of the cage door with a small switchblade that had been strapped to her lower leg. 

She had released several of the sinew bindings when her work was interrupted by the sound of footsteps. She froze and looked to her sleeping captor - who seemed undisturbed - before realizing the steps were coming from the other direction. She tucked the knife under her leg just as one of the small guards came into view. He dipped his head to her level and gaped as if she were a dangerous animal. 

“Hey, hello,” she said softly. “Come here.”

He looked startled, if not a bit curious, and pushed himself up on tiptoes to better assess the Scientist across the room.

“He’s asleep,” she offered, unsure if it would make a difference. 

This was one of the gelflings the creatures mistook her for, she realized, but they were clearly not human. Small and slight with large, round eyes and ears like that of a deer sticking out of the side of his head, he appeared more like a gaunt, elfin child with an elongated face. 

“You understand me, right? He said I was speaking gelfling.” She tried to sound gentle to put him at ease. “Can you help me? Please?”

He took a few steps forward, but maintained a safe distance from the cage. “What do you want, creature?” 

“Isn’t it obvious?” She gestured to her cramped surroundings. 

“I’m a castle guard. My job is to keep dangerous things out, or in, as the case may be.”

“Sure, yeah, I get it. But I shouldn’t be in here. I haven’t done anything except maybe swim into the wrong cave. But mainly, I don’t want to end up like those things,” she nodded to a shelf of mounted specimens. 

“I’ve never seen anything like you before. Where did you come from?” 

“Does Earth mean anything to you?”

He cocked his head to one side. 

“Didn’t think so. That one,” she jerked her head towards the Scientist, “won’t tell me anything.”

“You’re in the Castle of the Crystal … on Thra,” he said, squatting down to rest on his haunches. “Ever heard of that?”

“No. I’m … an explorer, though I didn’t mean to come to another world,” it sounded ridiculous now that she said it out loud. “I can’t really explain how I got here.”

“So you just want to go back?”

“Yes, exactly, but it’s complicated.” Even if it was just as simple as touching the crystal again, most of her gear was lying in pieces. What if she was deposited right back into the cave underwater? 

“They said you were dangerous.”

Edin sighed and adjusted her position, careful to keep the knife covered as she turned to face him straight on. “Well, there’s only one of me and I’m not especially vicious. Anyway, I’m obviously not an animal, so I should be treated better than this, don’t you think?”

The guard shook his head. “Why should you be treated any better than the other creatures here?”

“Because I’m intelligent; sentient ...”

“How intelligent can you be if you broke into the Lord’s castle?” 

Edin scoffed. “Look, if nothing else, I’m just asking for a little compassion. Can you give me that much?”

“It’s not my job to question the Lord’s reasoning for putting you here,” he said, unconvinced. “You could be a makrak, for all I know. No one has seen them in ages, but they were huge like you and violent, until the skeksis drove them away.”

“So you trust these guys?” It was hard to believe. Every instinct told her these creatures - skeksis - were bad news. “I mean, look at them. They look like monsters.”

“So do you.”

“Oh come on, I look more like you than that guy. They look like dragons in ball gowns!”

The guard smiled warily. “Like a giant skolkek at a ladies preening party.”

“Crocodiles at a coronation.”

“My sister if she’s woken before the second sun.”

Edin smiled, sensing the thaw. “My name is Edin. What’s yours?”

“Dhal.”

“Well Dhal, do you think you could help me out?”

He screwed his mouth to the side in thought, still watching her closely. 

“No, I better not.” He stood with a small shrug. 

“Seriously? Wait, wait,” she looked about her, eager to keep his attention. Desperately, she picked up the one fin that had made it into the cage with her. “Look at this. It’s for swimming. It’s yours. Just help me out.”

He looked at the fin, dubious.

“I don’t need your strange, giant shoe,” he said, glancing again at the skeksis. “But you’d better work your way through those lashings before the night watch ends. There will be twice as many guards in the morning.”

She slumped back, feeling foolish, and he turned to leave. 

“Dhal, wait, how do I get out of this place? Where should I go?”

He hesitated. “Head down. Stick to the smaller corridors. Be quick. Exit through the cookery,” he gestured beyond the room, vaguely to the left. “Once you’re out, follow the ley lines to the south - you’ll see the runestones - there’s a few villages that way. Maybe they can help.”

As he moved down the corridor and out of sight, she began sawing at the lashings with a renewed sense of urgency. The cage door was made of very strong but somewhat springy cane that resisted breaking. But once she had freed the gridwork bars from one side and the bottom of their frame, she was just able to push them apart at the corner. Lying on her back, she contorted her way carefully through the opening. Once freed, she stood slowly, feeling her stiff joints pop and stretch painfully. She looked down the wide corridor through which the guard had left and then back toward the laboratory, biting her lip. 

The amethyst crystal hung suspended just across the room and nearby, all the equipment she would need to reenter the cave. Creeping forward on bare feet, she gripped the knife, ready. Sprawled before the still-sleeping skeksis, she could see her gear in utter ruin. Tubing pulled from its housing, the regulator reduced to a pile of metal and plastic components, her state-of-the-art dive computer a series of electronic sheets. 

Her stomach clenched, suddenly fearful for perhaps the first time during this whole bizarre ordeal. Without her gear, she was truly lost. She looked at the drooling monster and the fear turned to rage. She could plunge her knife into his back so easily. Under all those garments, she wagered he wasn’t so much bigger than she was and wondered what kind of strength those bony arms possessed. She turned the knife in her hand, raised her arm, heart pounding fiercely. But what good would come of goring this creature? It would take immense effort to repair the dismembered wreckage of her dive gear and it was doubtful that she’d have more than a few moments before others would come. No, better not. 

She backed away and turned down the corridor, making a quick exit. Outside the lab, it was much dimmer with only periodic, candlelit wall sconces to guide the way. To the left, the floor sloped downward. Heeding Dhal’s advice, she crept quietly but with haste in that direction. The passageway was wide with irregularly-shaped windows puncturing the thick, stone walls on one side. As her eyes adjusted, she could see soft, blue moonlight shining dimly through. Keeping close to the wall and still wielding her knife, she felt a bit like a wetsuited ninja. 

A few yards on, a smaller, unlit corridor split from the main. She unzipped the small pouch tied around her waist and felt for her spare light. She also carried a cord cutter, line tags, a small finger spool with line, compass, dive table, and an underwater notepad and pen. Some of these items might be more useful than others. 

She switched on her light and quickly swung the beam around the space before shielding it against her body. Though she had yet to come across anyone else in the tomb-like corridors, she remained cautious not to draw attention with artificial light in such a dark space. But she could see that the narrow passage angled downward and was not as nicely crafted as the main, so probably utilitarian in nature. She continued on, feeling the walls and periodically flashing her light to examine a doorway or tertiary passageway. The clenched feeling in her stomach from the lab hadn’t quite dissipated. It may have been the adrenaline bristling through her veins, but as her face grew hot she worried it was bacterial in nature. Fighting to ignore rising nausea, she took a few deep breaths. Be calm. 

As the corridor wound deeper into the castle, the blackness was interrupted by a slash of ochre light. She crept forward cautiously, and hearing no movement, peaked around the corner of a wide doorway of a cavernous room illuminated by smoldering embers in a grand hearth. Furnished with low tables, bins heaped with colorful vegetation, and shelves lined with a vast collection of peculiar vessels, she guessed this was the kitchen Dhal mentioned.

Feeling cautious relief, she stowed her light and scanned the room for an exit of some kind. On the far wall, just under the vaulted ceiling, narrow slits of moonlight beamed into the smoky chamber. Though the tables underneath scarcely reached her knees, she climbed up and stretched to reach the vents. Perhaps if she hoisted herself up, they would prove bigger than they appeared and she could just squeeze through. As she toed the wall for a foothold, her stomach suddenly heaved in protest, bringing her to her knees. With a jagged inhale, her mouth filled with saliva and her esophagus clenched. Lunging towards a depression in the countertop, she retched with a fit of coughs, pulling up a rush of hot, burning liquid. The water, of course. She traveled enough to know that water in a foreign place could hold unfamiliar pathogens, but what about water on another planet? She was already dehydrated from decompression sickness, and this added complication could easily spell a death sentence.


	4. Chapter 4

When Edin’s coughing and sputtering slowed and the nausea subsided somewhat, she couldn’t help but notice the bile sliding downward into a purpose-cut hole. Wiping her face as best she could, she hung her head off the counter. Underneath, her vomit dripped viscously into a wide chute that lead through the wall. A drain to the outside. She looked back to the vents overhead with a dawning realization that the drain was probably her best, if only, option. 

Sinking to the floor to better inspect the unappealing exit, her flashlight revealed ages of grime staining the stones, but an opening to the outside nonetheless. Through the thick wall, she could just make out winking stars in the night sky, but no indication of what wait on the other side. Standing, she spied a pitcher of water on the counter and slowly trickled a stream down the drain. As the liquid washed away what remained of her stomach contents, she couldn’t determine where or how it drained beyond the wall. Well, at least she had cleaned the chute a bit. 

Laying on her stomach, she sent her arms through first in an attempt to assess the outside by touch. There was a floor - a gutter or watercourse of some kind - just on the other side. Once she found purchase against the slick surface, she pulled her head and shoulders out, closing her eyes against the putrid slime through which she crawled. When her head was clear, she opened her eyes again and gasped. She was staring straight down into dark nothingness. The spillway was only an arms-length, at most, and beyond that, a very far drop. 

She quickly shuffled back, heart racing. Surely this isn’t what Dhal had meant? Then again, she had no particular reason to trust him. Maybe he was intentionally sending her off a deadly drop? Or maybe this wasn’t the cookery at all? She backed into the room and looked more closely, but it was hard to imagine another purpose for the space. The darkened corridor outside held no more clues. If this was a fortified castle, which it certainly seemed to be, then by design, escape would be difficult.

She checked her dive watch; about an hour since she got out of the cage. Dare she explore the dark and winding passageways for another way out? Time was limited; the skeksis was bound to wake up eventually or another guard would cross her path. She pulled the finger spool from her pouch. If she set a guideline, she would have about 100 feet to explore while still being able to find her way back through the maze-like hallways. As she searched the room for a sturdy tie off, she stopped herself. Wasn’t this how she got into this mess to begin with? Instead of sticking to the one path she knew was an escape, she had pushed further into the unknown. 

With a decisive huff, she replaced the spool and crawled back under the counter. Wriggling her way through to the waist, she was able to give it a proper look. The moonlit landscape was breathtaking in its grand expanse and unexpected serenity. The castle was situated in an alluvial plain of a dark, meandering waterway split into a vast network of tributaries that shuddered with silvery resonance. Beyond, a shadowed mountain range reached toward an impossibly brilliant night sky in which was suspended three nearly full moons of different sizes, as bright as searchlights. On the horizon, she could just make out a gray ribbon of approaching dawn. Looking straight down the steep sides of the castle, the river formed a natural moat around its base about fifty feet below. If the water was deep enough, she might make it. 

With great care, she eased her legs out of the hole and onto the spillway into a tight crouch. Her stomach knotted, now with fear rather than sickness, although the latter still felt close behind. A steady but warm wind pulled loose tendrils of hair from her braid as she attempted to steel her nerves and wished she retained at least her dive mask. With a deep inhale, she hopped off the ledge and thrust her legs down while crossing her arms over her chest. For one breathless second, she watched the black water rush to meet her, the currents and undulations coming into sharp focus before she pinched her eyes shut and hit the surface. 

The explosive slap of water shot through all her senses at once, causing a momentary paralysis of confusion. But she quickly realized the deep waterway had seized hold of her in one piece and was now towing her along forcefully. She spread her arms and kicked her feet for the surface, which felt impossibly distant. When she surfaced, she took a deep breath, attempting to swallow as little water as possible. She had landed perilously close to the base of the wall, but her attempt to swim toward it was futile as the current pulled against her. As she was carried around the base of the castle, she could feel that the swift flow of the river would send her down the valley and away.

She relaxed somewhat, feeling the faintest of victories, and looked back. But the sight of the castle looming overhead was as much a shock as hitting the water had been. It was a monstrous, jagged shape, tall as a skyscraper, with spear-like towers and barbarous embellishments piercing the night sky. From so close, she couldn’t perceive the full size or mass of it, but easily sensed its wretchedness. It seemed utterly out of sync with the graceful beauty of the surrounding terrain. Apart from the few visible drainage holes in its severe black edifice, she could see only one spindly, arched bridge that served as a proper exit and was glad she opted for the more terrifying way out.

As she passed the sharp bend around the castle, the river slowed somewhat and, judging by its warming temperature, grew more shallow. Over the sound of the steadily flowing water, she could hear a great cacophony of creatures singing their last songs before dawn. She was tempted to stay in the river and put some distance between her and the castle, but she needed to find her bearings and make a plan. With no small amount of effort, she paddled her way toward the shallow edge, which grew soupy with thick sediment. The mud suctioned her feet as she attempted to find footing, pulling her head back underwater. She pushed back out into the current, sputtering. The bank was some sort of bog or marsh. 

From her low vantage point, it was difficult to see what lay only a few yards ahead, especially since the immediate landscape was relatively flat. Treading the water, she strained to find something she might grab hold of when a dark mound appeared just on the bank. Moving back into the shallows, she braced herself, ready to grab hold of a large boulder. But as she approached, the boulder shifted and rose up, pulling a massive head from the marshy vegetation. Edin flipped over and began to swim against the current, attempting to slow her progress toward the creature’s chewing mouth, but all she succeeded in doing was arousing the attention of more living boulders that rose from the swampy waters to watch. 

When she stopped her panicked thrashing, she realized they were only chewing on plant life and seemed slow and indifferent. Big as an elephant but with flat, ape-like faces, they were covered in long fur that dragged through the bog and what appeared to be tree stumps and other greenery growing from their backs. As she floated past and they regarded one another, she impulsively reached out and grabbed a long tendril of its floating hair. When it pulled taut, the animal swung its head and flicked her back upstream and into the riverbank. Clinging tight as a mite, she scrambled through the mud and used its coarse hair to pull herself onto terra firma. The animal groaned in protest and took a few weighty steps away before it resumed its foraging. 

Lying in a heap in the wet grass, Edin paused to catch her breath and found her body longing to slide into stillness, suddenly overcome with exhaustion. She was powerfully thirsty despite having ingested river water - which was sure to come up again later - and her joints ached miserably from the bends. Pulling her knees to her chest, she allowed herself a moment of self pity. 

This crazy place. This unbelievable situation. It was sensory overload; better to accept and deal with one dilemma at a time rather than try to comprehend it all. But beyond taking care of her immediate needs and getting to a relatively safe place, how would she get home? She thought again of her equipment in the lab. If the Scientist had been able to pull it apart, maybe he could put it back together again. The image of the knife in her hand, poised above his back, flashed in her mindseye. What was that? Never in her life had she considered physically harming someone, much less trying to kill them. Maybe this place was making her crazy, if she hadn’t plunged off the edge of sanity already. 

Feeling soft warmth on the side of her face, she realized the morning sun was breaking through the cool dawn. Pushing up onto one arm, she assessed her surroundings. She had floated perhaps 300 yards from the castle; not far enough to be unseen should anyone look, but a good head start anyway. She was told to head south, so she pulled the compass from her pouch and held it flat in her hand, waiting for the dial to still itself. But with no uncertainty, it shot straight back toward the castle. She couldn’t know how the magnetism on another world worked, but it seemed there was a particularly strong pull toward that cruel place. The opposite direction suited her fine.

She would need to head away from the river and into the grassy foothills with the rising sun, unexpectedly, to the west. Though the vegetation around the river was lush, it seemed to thin out beyond, punctuated by patches of silty black soil which could make good cover given her black wetsuit. 

With a deep inhale, Edin ran her hands slowly over her face and back across her head, smoothing down her soggy hair. 

_“Ponte las pilas,”_ she muttered to herself with a slow exhale. She had to keep going. She pushed herself upright, rotating and flexing her shoulders, and began the careful task of picking her way through the swampy marsh toward the hills.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Ponte las pilas,_ Spanish term, literally "put in the batteries." Meaning, pull yourself together, get going.


	5. Chapter 5

Drifting down through the crystal’s shaft and into the Chamber of Life, skekTek could hear the Emperor raging. Upon waking, skek had eagerly returned to the fascinating devices the american brought with it, not thinking to check on it until some time had passed. Staring into an empty cell save one of the creature’s flippers, skek was confused at first, but very quickly realized its missteps. Skek should have opened up the creature right away, or at least properly immobilized it before turning attention elsewhere. 

Too meek to inform the Emperor itself, skek sent a guard to deliver the news of the escape, hoping for indifference but anticipating that which came. Perhaps there was a different story skek could tell; shift the emphasis away from the american to the crystal. In the scheme of things, the crystal was eternally more important anyway. But in the time since the american arrived, what new information had the Scientist gleaned about their source of power? Skek hadn’t even consulted the astronomical charts. What could skek offer to quell the Emperor’s wrath? 

Standing in front of the crystal, yet unchanged, skekTek traced a boney talon along the underside of its jaw in thought. Was it conceivable that the Concurrence had supplied enough additional power to create a bridge between other worlds? If so, could the force which brought the american here work in reverse, or was it a span traversable in only one direction? 

Stepping forward and balancing carefully at the edge of the volcanic pit which suspended the crystal, skekTek reached out. When its hand made contact with the smooth, tepid surface, nothing happened. As expected, admittedly. With a disgruntled sigh, skek pushed itself back and stepped away from the chasm. 

Supposing the impulsive touch yielded a result like that experienced by the american, where could it have led? With closed eyes, skek tried to imagine where else it might rather be, what other impenetrable corner of the universe could be known, but could see only the black of its eyelids. Once, long ago, skek had travelled among the stars, but the memory was too frustratingly faint to conjure any tangible images. Ideata without data; supposition without evidence; knowledge without certainty. Ah, but that smell; that red-hot metal meets charred flesh smell. That was something certain, something to cling to. 

“Scientist!”

SkekTek reluctantly turned to face the Emperor with skekUng and skekSil in phalanx as they strode into the chamber. Never good to see the formidable Spy Master by the Emperor’s side, much less in collusion with the Chamberlin. Skek did not move to greet them, preferring to keep a safe distance behind a familiar gallimaufry of lab instruments and tools. 

“Unbelievable incompetence,” skekSo seethed. “Hapless, rattlebrained fool.” 

“Your eminence,” SkekTek ducked its head in capitulation. “It is not as it may seem-”

“Not as it may seem?” The Emperor gestured about the chamber, making a show of searching for the lost specimen. “It seems that the intruder has been lost. Is this not so?”

SkekSil and skekUng wore matching, oily smiles which only heightened skekTek’s trepidation. 

“The american creature is of little concern to skeksis. Merely crude flesh like stinking turgon, but even lowlier because it is not of Thra.”

SkekSo’s eyes narrowed but skek issued no objection, so skekTek pressed on eagerly. 

“The creature came through dimwitted happenstance only, by no special ability or intuition. The crystal saw fit to bring it, you see?” Skek opened wide arms toward the crystal. “It has been sparked, awoken by some force.”

“The Concurrence?”

“Very possibly, yes, but I’ve yet to take spectroscopic measurements or analyze existing determinable evidence-”

“Then it seems we know nothing more than we did yesterday.”

“Less, in fact, since the creature that caused it is missing due to skekTek’s ineptitude,” the Chamberlain added with a disapproving groan. 

“Yes, incontrovertible.” The Emperor looked to skekUng who, with a glowering sneer, pushed its considerable bulk through the lab equipment toward skekTek. 

“Emperor, no, the creature is but an inconsequential side effect, a rancid belch after a grand meal. Unnecessary for further analysis.” the Scientist backed away from the approaching skekUng, nearing the edge of the crystal’s chasm. 

“Shall I push skek in, Emperor? See what affect the Lake of Fire might have on this fetid heap of nebrie dung?” 

SkekTek could feel the fiery Breath of Thra licking at its tail as skekUng loomed over. Clearly, skek had miscalculated. An insatiable desire for knowledge gave the Scientist a rather unfortunate predilection toward truth, which made skek a poor schemer and thus an ineffectual skeksis. 

After a punishing pause, the Emperor waved a merciful hand. “SkekTek is more useful alive than dead.”

With relief, skek shuffled away from the pit, keeping head low in supplication. 

“I expect to gain something from this yet, Scientist. I am not nearly satisfied.” 

“Emperor, you will see, much is yet to be learned. I’ve only just begun deconstructing the technological-”

“I’ve heard enough. Silence it.” 

With surprising agility, skekUng leapt forward and lashed its great, taloned hand across skekTek’s throat, drawing a spatter of blood onto its perversely glowing face. SkekTek clasped both hands around its freshly flayed neck and sank to the floor.

“The creature should have been given to me,” the Spy Master hissed. “It would have been secure and revealed everything it had to tell before the last sun fell.”

Gurgling blood, skekTek watched them depart helplessly. SkekSil, the Emperor’s shadow, turned back momentarily to give a pittying moan.

The sounds and smells of the landscape were at once familiar and unknown. A clicking trill followed by a jumping insect like a grasshopper and then an alarming whoop-whoop call of a hopping ball of fuzz trailing long-line feelers. Recognizably avian flying creatures and then jellyfish-like animals slowly pulsing their way through the sky. At one point, a legless, faceless animal wriggled in front of Edin’s path only to tuck itself into a ball like an armadillo and roll away. 

The land above the river valley was a vast, undulating plain on which grew thick grasses taller than her head. Traipsing her way through the dense vegetation, which seemed to perspire humidity of its own under an ever-warming, bright blue sky, Edin was reminded of an autumn corn maze she once visited as a child. It was a strange sensation of nostalgia and hazy delirium that propelled her forward now. She knew she was at the edge of her endurance; her body was weak, painful, and out of sorts and her thoughts increasingly muddled.

Was she actually seeing two suns, or was she going cross eyed? Were the plants shuddering as she passed, or was it the breeze? Whenever she got a view through the grass forest, the castle appeared as a black smudge on the verdant landscape. She must have traveled close to sixteen miles in the eight hours since her escape, but there was no indication she was being sought. Surely someone would have noticed her absence by now, but would they even care?

As she wondered how long the skeksis sleep, she had a sudden, sinking remembrance of the cave. And Brian. Had eight hours also passed there? If so, any rescue effort would by now be a body retrieval. Although they had close calls in the past, they were never put in a position of leaving the other behind during a dive. Poor Brian. 

With her mind preoccupied, she nearly missed the bulbous stone peaking above the grasses in the distance. Though she maintained a magnetic south heading, the out-of-place pillar was only a few degrees off course, so she made her way toward it. Dhal had mentioned ley lines and runestones and judging by the intricate patterns of swirled knots carved into the face of this standing stone, it must have been one of them. She took another reading; 128 degrees. She could follow this heading until she reached … what? Another stone? A village? At the thought of walking another sixteen miles, Edin’s last shred of tenacity faltered. Her knees buckled and she wilted dejectedly against the warm stone. Perhaps if she just fell asleep here someone would find her eventually. Even if it was the skeksis, at least then she might get some water. 

She closed her eyes and allowed her head to hang heavily, feeling the blood pulse angrily in her temples. She tried to lick her cracked lips, but her tongue felt like sandpaper. Little creatures rustled, clicked, and sang in the swaying grasses all around and it felt peaceful, despite her miserable condition. She had never really considered her death seriously, not even after the rock fell in the cave, but she now thought this wouldn’t be such a bad way to go. It wasn’t the suspended nothingness of a black cave, but a bright, warm day in a strange and beautiful place and that was comforting, in a way. 

A rumbling vibration shook her from her macabre reverie and she raised her head to listen more closely. The commotion grew louder and sounded like galloping horses. When she heard a voice yelping indistinctly, she slowly heaved herself to her feet and swiveled her head about, trying to locate the source. 

The rumbling hoofbeats seemed to be heading toward her from the direction of the castle. If the stone was a landmark of some kind, it would be an obvious place to send a search party. She hesitated; should she wait to be found, or continue to hide?


	6. Chapter 6

Straining to see beyond the small glade of the runestone, Edin could just make out the loping backs of some great, running beasts above the grass. Sitting astride one of them was a small rider making indiscernible calls. He didn’t wear the trappings of the guards and seemed more like a shepherd. As she watched, she realized they weren’t heading for her and would soon pass entirely. 

With all the grace of a charging bull, she plunged back into the flora, eager to catch the rider before she missed him. Using the sound of their hoofbeats as a guide, she blundered forward until the grass suddenly gave way to a clearing forged through the vegetation.

Bursting through the wall of grass, she fell headlong into a forest of galloping limbs which reared and stumbled their way around her. She instinctively rolled into a ball and wrapped her arms around her head as the long legs attempted to avoid trampling her. 

“Hoy! Bar, bar!” The rider called, slowing the tumult. 

Peeking through her arms, Edin saw short, gray bodies resting atop stilt-like legs. Like stretched out horses with whiskered, pug faces, they honked and trilled as they warily danced around her. With a relieved sigh, she unfolded and scootched her way to the side of the road, staring at the enormous creatures. 

“What’s gotten into you?” The rider had dismounted and was working his way through the legs. 

Edin grabbed at the wooden fence built to keep the grass at bay and pulled herself upright.

“I’m sorry, it was my fault, but I had to catch you.”

The gelfling rider stopped short at the sight of her, eyes bulging. 

“I mean no harm,” Edin spread her hands and stooped a bit, hoping to seem nonthreatening. “I’m searching for a village where I can get some food and water. I was told to come this way by Dhal, at the castle. Do you know him?” She knew it was a stupid question, but she needed to win the rider’s trust. 

“The Castle of the Crystal? Are you… are you a Skeksis Lord?” 

“What? Are you kidding?” When it appeared that he was not, she shook her head. “No. I’m from very far away. I just need help. Can you take me to the nearest village?”

The rider straightened a bit and looked up at his mounts. “Well, I suppose if they’ll carry a Lord of the Crystal, they’ll carry you too. I’m headed to Over Hill.”

He grabbed hold of the front leg of the ugly horse and with a few well-placed steps, climbed up and onto its back. Edin walked to the nearest animal - her head barely reached the underside of its belly - and cautiously touched its bony leg. It moaned and shifted its weight as if in protest of what she was about to do. In an awkward attempt to mimic the rider, she grappled at the hairy leg to find a foothold, only to fall heavily back down. 

With an amused snort, the rider walked his mount to the fence and gestured for her to use it as a ladder. 

“Never ridden a landstrider I take it?” He slid down the opposite side.

With his instruction and the added lift, she was able to throw her chest over its sloped back and pull herself upright using the bony appendages that jutted up from its elbow. 

“Now just fall back, she’ll follow the herd. I’ll bring up the rear,” he circled his animal around as she tried to find a secure way to straddle without sliding back. “Don’t fall off; it’s a long way even for you.”

After a harrowing ride that nearly rattled the teeth from her head, they reached a village built just on the edge of the grass forest. Little yurt houses made of woven grass huddled around a central square in which was built a large, stone fire pit. Beyond were pens containing other peculiar animals, though none as large as the landstriders. 

When they approached, a few gelfling people came to greet the shepherd, but stopped to stare as Edin slid off the animal and, losing her footing, fell flat onto her backside. 

“I found this on my way, not twenty tiks from here,” the shepherd gestured to Edin. “Says it came from the castle.”

Edin stood slowly and brushed the dirt from her behind before attempting a smile. “Hi, I’m Edin, an explorer from far away. I’m a she, and definitely not a skeksis.”

The rider beamed as if he had found a stray puppy. “Ever see such a thing?”

The villagers were dressed in simple tunic-and-hosen garb with elegant turbans wrapped around big ears. Most wore their dark hair long, though some had woven braids into the folds of their head wrap. As Edin scanned the growing crowd, she noticed both the men and the women wore delicately-engraved, silver and brass cuffs on their wrists and ankles; some of the older individuals wore them up their entire arm. 

“She looks road weary,” a gray-haired woman pointed an arthritic finger in her direction. “May as well bring her into the hall, get her fed.”

The crowd parted as the woman made her way through the square. Edin followed, feeling a bit like Dorothy in a less cheerful Munchkinland, into the largest of the yurts off the square. Nearly dropping to her knees to fit through the doorway, the woven ceiling inside peaked at the center where a hole was left to vent the open fire in the middle of the single, round room. Rugs woven with vibrant tableaus hung against the grass walls under which furs and cushions were piled. Though smokey from the fire, the dim room had an earthy, inviting smell.

The woman settled onto a cushion near the low fire and gestured for Edin to sit. 

“I’m the elder of Over Hill, Kamaral. Are you a friend to the skeksis, or was there another reason you came to be in the castle?”

Sitting cross-legged on the opposite side of the hearth, Edin considered the best response. The only thing she wanted for now was water, and maybe a nap, and she’d say just about anything to get it. The gelflings were subservient to the skeksis, so perhaps it would play better to be an ally rather than a captive.

“We’re only newly acquainted, but I’m an independent sort of explorer so didn’t want to impose on their... hospitality.” 

“Newly acquainted with the skeksis? You must be from very far indeed. The skeksis rule all of Thra, or so we’re told.”

Edin shrugged. “Not all of it, apparently.” 

“How is it that you speak our language if you are new to these lands?”

“I find it amazing myself, actually. I don’t know.” The elder certainly didn’t speak with any accent Edin could place; more deliberate and delicate than she was used to, but easily comprehensible. “Maybe we share common ancestors?”

Kamaral held her gaze, lips pursing slightly. “Well, I’ve never seen or heard of the likes of you, so I suppose there are still unknowns to Thra, even for me.” She sighed and shifted on her seat. “So then, let’s drink and eat and tell each other what we know.” 

“Thank you, yes. Is it possible to have water boiled for me to drink? Otherwise it will make me sick.”

The elder snorted. “Is that so, explorer? Well we can offer you ta, if that’s your wish.” She gestured to an attendant who obligingly placed a pot of water onto the hearth. 

“Your jewelry is beautiful. Is it significant?” 

Kamaral held out her arm and peered at the cuffs, as if just remembering they were there. “Yes, they are dream-etched with our stories. The more stories, the more bands. As you can see, I have many.” The elder leaned against a pillow to her side. “Your garb is interesting as well.”

Looking down at her tattered wetsuit, Edin realized what a mess she was. She had removed the sleeves to fashion slippers for her bare feet and cut the whole suit in half at the waist so the bottoms would be easier to remove. Once out of the water, relieving oneself in a wetsuit becomes problematic. 

“Yeah, I’ve lost some of my supplies along the way so had to make do,” she laughed sheepishly as she was handed a woven plate piled with an assortment of brown blobs, fruits, and seeds. Her stomach groaned, but she hesitated. If she ate anything that wasn’t cooked, it likely wouldn’t stay down. Maybe the seeds would be safe.

“So the skeksis … they’re your rulers?”

“We gelfling are our own rulers,” Kamaral bristled. “We have an age-old alliance with the Skeksis Lords and they protect the Crystal of Truth, which we all serve.”

“Oh, is that the purple crystal in the castle?” Edin asked through a mouthful of bitter seeds. “They did seem very concerned about it.”

“You’ve seen the crystal? And it was _purple?”_

“We have one too, where I’m from. It’s pink. I think they’re connected somehow.”

Kamaral brought her twisted knuckles to her lips and knitted her brow in thought. Edin dipped her finger into the brown mash and tested it on her tongue. It tasted savory and rich, like finely ground, salted meat or maybe morcilla. She took a larger dollop and eagerly sucked it off her finger. 

“What’s the crystal’s significance?” 

“The crystal is the heart of Thra; it is Thra. What’s the significance of your crystal, if not that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s the heart as well and we just forgot about it.” Edin tried to recall any story from history about a crystal, but drew a blank. Could it really have been hidden in that cave for all time? Probably for the best; if humans got their hands on something so precious, it would end up in a millionaire's foyer or turned to fuel for someone’s Volkswagen. “How did the skeksis come to possess the crystal?”

“They don’t possess it, they cannot. They protect it. Long ago, they were entrusted with its care by great beings. They’ve been its protectors ever since.”

Noticing the water begin to boil, Edin set a timer on her watch and shooed away the attendant. It needed to boil at least five minutes. That’s how it worked on Earth, anyway. “It just seems odd to me, trusting the skeksis.”

“I thought you were in their favor?”

“I’m just passing through, really. But they seem… cruel, don’t they?”

“Never. They are generous and devoted to Thra and its creatures.”

Edin snorted. “That’s not what I saw.”

The elder huffed and rolled her eyes. “You presume to know a great deal, explorer. We live well here and have no reason to question the skeksis. We have had peace and prosperity. How do your people live?”

“Ok, I get it. Don’t rock the boat, huh?”

Kamaral raised an eyebrow. “Amusing description, but yes. Our course is smooth. In any case, it sounds to me like you could use someone to watch over your crystal if it’s been forgotten.”

Edin blew gently into a small cup of cooling water. “You’re not wrong.”

After working her way through several pots of water, much to her hosts’ concern, she was invited to rest and did so with much relief. Given the physical and mental trial she’d endured, sleep came readily and deeply while the little village carried on outside. When she blinked open her eyes, evening had come and someone was stoking the warmly-glowing fire in the center of the room. She cracked her shoulders and stretched her arms, still aching from the bends, but stopped mid-yawn when she noticed what was stationed in a grandiose heap near the door. 

Casually working his way through a pile of meaty bones on a large salver, a skeksis sat waiting.


End file.
